Blogging about smart #aid

When you give a #Dollar, #Euro, #Rupee or a #Yen in aid, good intentions are not enough. Your money may not end up spend well. Saundra who runs the website "good intentions are not enough" writes regularly on this topic and she is a fantastic read.

One point she has often made is that when there is a disaster, one of the more abundant and most ambitious resources for recovery are the survivors. They do not necessarily speak English and the best preparation to enable this resource is having software they may be using localised ahead of time.

Aid can also be given in more tranquil times; micro-financing the poor can enrich lives and not only in a financial sense. The best assessment of people to give a micro loan are the local people who speak a local language.

At translatewiki.net we support the localisation of software that is used to help. OpenStreetMap and MediaWiki are used when disasters strike, Mifos supports the organisations that provide micro-finance. Translatewiki.net is run by volunteers and the funds donated to it will be used to improve the quality of the service we provide.

Saundra is going to take a break, she will be back with renewed energy in October. In the mean time she is inviting people to write blog posts that will keep her blog alive and explain about smart aid.

When you help us localise at translatewiki.net, you help prepare for when disaster strikes in your end of the world and it does not cost you a dime only time.
Thanks,
      GerardM